I am not that concerned about the fate of the Church. For the church is Christ’s and the Church is one. Those of are of Christ are called to him from every nation and from every church. But not one church is perfect.

I tend to write in shorthand here, and I have used the Scots word Kirk to refer to the church frequently. I generally mean those who are of Christ, in every church, not just those who are members of a congregation. I tend to use the word Church to refer to congregations, to buildings, to what we can see now.

In all its broken state, and corruption. the politics of the church have been a sorry state and a poor witness as long as I can recall. For speaking the truth all too often has been without love, or if given in love, has been heard as offensive.

As if the exquisite tenor of our most base feelings should rule us and the church. This is not true teaching, and not of Christ.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

(Ephesians 4:1-16 ESV)

I do not think the doctrine of the church invisible and church visible is unique to the reformed church. It is clearly Catholic: it is clearly Orthodox. The Kirk is those of Christ: we know there have been bishops appointed by various rulers whose agenda was that of the State, and there have even been heretical popes[1]. Luther called the Borgia popes Antichrist, and he was probably correct: they spent far too much on a big gilded Basilica for the glory of their renaissance reign, and cared not enough for the Church, and not at all for the Kirk.

We need to find a unity among those of us called by Christ, and we need to tolerate the cross-grained stubbornness of those around us. We must, on these issues, be charitable, for we cannot perceive the state of another’s soul.

Perhaps the most succinct and the best statement of the church as invisible and visible is found in the Westminster Standards. Chapter 25, “Of the Church,” states: “The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (sections 1, 2).

Reformed theologians emphasize that this distinction does not mean that God has two separate churches. Indeed, they assert that Jehovah has founded one church, that Jesus has only one bride, people, church, or body. Our Lord does not have two churches but only one. The terms “invisible” and “visible” are used to describe two distinct aspects of the one church; or, to put it another way, the church is considered from two different perspectives. It is not that there are two separate air tight categories with one group on heaven and another on earth. On the contrary, there is a great overlap between both categories. All genuine believers are members of the invisible church whether they are living in heaven or on earth, whether they are alive or dead (i.e., have died physically). Not all professing Christians, however, who are members of the visible church, are members of the invisible church. Some people who make a profession of faith and are baptized are hypocrites. Such people do not truly believe in Christ (thus are never truly united to Him by faith) and are not part of the invisible church.

A few years ago I had to counsel trainees who faced this question in their specialist examinations.

“A psychiatrist in the community is like a carp in a rice field. Discuss”

The question was poorly worded, and alluded to Mao saying a revolutionary in a village should be like the carp in a rice paddy — there but not seen. Since most people sitting the examination did not have any knowledge of this, they did not give the answer the examiners wanted.

Those who are of Christ swim in our communities and in our churches. We cannot see them: they probably don’t blog, for blogging requires a certain snarkiness. Let us pray that we are part of that fold.

For functionally, those of the kirk agree on more than they disagree on. They can meet, and disagree, but continue to care for each other . It is the Secular world that assumes that everything is correct, and our thoughts must be united, in a form of lock-step. It is the secular world that wants to merge churches, perhaps hoping that they can poison the faith of the remnant.

But now this: Christ calls his own. And without him, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

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1. Mundabor has an excellent page on this very subject, from which I found this link.